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Descriptive essays

The proverbial picture is worth a thousand words, so goes the adage. However, the question is, how can one find these proverbial thousand words to correctly portray that picture. The answer is to use the descriptive language to write descriptive essays. Many experienced and renowned writers across the globe have utilised this technique to glue their reader’s attention to their stories. This technique gives the writer a platform to use meticulous details that provide the reader with relevant situations. They can make inferences about the characters as well as the plot development.

The definition of descriptive essays

A descriptive essay is a genre of writing that describes a thing, event, process, or a person by creating vivid experiences for the reader. It provides an in-depth understanding of the essay’s main topic to the reader. Human brain receives information through, smell, touch, taste, sight, and hearing. When writing this kind of an essay, you must appeal towards all these senses.

When writing descriptive essays, you can choose a place, person, experience, memory, or an object. You can take a descriptive essay from an artistic point of view. The idea is to paint a vivid picture to the reader and to give them a well-rounded impression of the message you are trying to put across. Every descriptive essay must serve a specific purpose. It can hinge on a lesson from experience of how something influenced your life. Ensure that you have a defined purpose for your descriptive essay.

Options for your descriptive essay

  • Describing a person
    You can describe a person that you know. The person could be a family mender, a friend, colleague, schoolteacher, or professor. For instance, you can have examples of descriptive essays that talk about a person that you know very well, you will not experience lack of content. The process will be easy, and you will have the peace of mind required in writing an eloquent masterpiece.
    It is also okay for you to write about a fictional person. This can be a character from your favourite movie, television show or a video game.
  • Describing an object or a place
    You can describe a specific place or an object that you have strong feelings about. This can be your school, workplace, childhood home, favourite city. You are also free to write about an object or place that is defunct, like the fantastical place from a book or the magic rod from your favourite movie.
  • Describing an emotion
    Try recalling one of the sincerest and longest feelings you had and turn it into a masterpiece that can be used as one of the examples of descriptive essays. Strong emotions like anger, love, happiness, loss, desire, or range can make a good descriptive essay. Talking about these emotions will make your essay more fascinating.

Descriptive Essay sample topics

Some of the explorable sample topics you can use when writing descriptive essays include:

  • People
    Describe the traits that make them a perfect role model. Describe what separates them from the regular human beings. If it is your friend, talk about what sets him apart from your other regular acquaintances. Describe a human to an average alien who has never before seen a human being.
  • Place
    Describe a place you saw in your dreams and bring it to life. You can also describe a place that is ideal for planning an event of your choice. Paint a picture using words, about the most beautiful scenery you have ever seen.
  • Memory
    Talk about events that brought back your favourite memory and how the setting affected it. Write about the favourite memory that you think about and talk about the aspects that make them iconic. You can write about specific aspects that set regular events from the unique memories of your life.
  • Experience
    Describe a moment in your life when you zoned out of a certain setting and took a minute to appreciate life in its entirety. Describe a moment when you led a crowd or did something out of your comfort zone. Describe an event that made you take a complete turn and explain how you dealt with it. All these are good examples of descriptive essays.
  • Object
    Describe something or an item to which you have a sentimental value and how that came about. You can describe something that you would burry in a time capsule to tell people what life is like today. If you are accused of witchcraft, describe technology to people from dark ages to help save your life.

It is imperative to note that descriptive essays can combine the senses. For instance, there can be scenarios where a given object took you down the memory lane to a specific experience. Social interaction can create a lasting memory. Mixing senses is not only acceptable but also helps in bringing most vivid stories in a person’s life.

When writing a descriptive essay, the maxim is to form a clear impression of the event, place, person, or the memory you are describing. When writing a descriptive essay, consider the following guidelines:

  • Take your time in brainstorming
    If for instance you are asked to describe your favourite food, ensure you write down some ideas before you begin your description. Let us say its pizza; begin with a few words like cheese, sauce, crust, pepperoni, spices, and sausage, hot, melted and so on. Once you have some words, you can start compiling descriptive lists for each one.
  • Use a language that is clear and concise
    You must use words carefully paying attention to their relevance concerning what you are describing.
  • Go for vivid descriptions
    Feel free to use stallion instead of horses, tempestuous instead of violent, miserly instead of cheap. The choice of such words forms a strong image in the reader’s mind. They also offer nuanced meanings that serve the intended purpose better.
  • Make use of senses
    As a good writer, you must appeal to the senses of your audience. Describe how something smelled, sounded, felt, tasted, or looked. Use the senses to embellish the moment.
  • Describe your thoughts
    If you can use descriptive essays describe emotions or feelings that relate to your topic, you will connect with your audience on a deeper level. Many have experienced serious losses in their lives, ecstatic joy, or mild complacency. Tap into these emotions to achieve your full descriptive potential.
  • Leave the audience with a clear impression
    One of the objectives of descriptive essays is to evoke strong feelings and sense of familiarity and appreciation in the audience. If your audience can walk away craving for the pizza, you have just described, then you are on the highway to writing effective descriptive essays.
  • Show organisation
    Writing descriptive essays can be daunting especially for the novices facing the challenge of writing incoherent ramblings of senses and emotions. However, you must try as much to present an organised and logical description of the person, object, place, and so on. This enables the reader to have a cogent understanding of what you are talking about in the essay.

The differences between narrative and descriptive essays

There is a stark difference between descriptive essays and narrative essays although some people get them confused. It is good to consult a few examples of descriptive essays to get a better picture. Narrative essays simply tell a story or part of the whole story. In narrative writing, the writer can tell the plot of the story.
Descriptive writing, on the other hand, gives a vivid portrayal of a place, person, an object in a manner that the audience can visualise the topic and enter in to the writer’s experience. This type of essay does not have to rely on the plot, but there has to be something that the reader can visualise.
All descriptive essays paint a picture or recreate a scene to the audience using words. With narrative essays, the writer simply relates a series of events that are either real or fiction. They are arranged chronologically and revolve around a particular point of view. Narrative writing employs the first person aspect, that is, the “I” or “me” whereas descriptive writing does not. Descriptive essays do not necessarily include actions, but narrative essays do.

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